In a span of 24 hours earlier this week, the Kings lost to the last-place team in the NHL, the San Jose Sharks, and won decisively against the Pacific Division leader, the Vegas Golden Knights.
So, in Saturday’s afternoon tilt with the Chicago Blackhawks, will the Kings rise up or stand down?
Overall, they’ve had a strong bottom line (6-3-2), and in their 6-3 romp over Vegas, they finally looked connected and confident – “it felt like we were playing again” and “everything kind of clicked,” said forward Adrian Kempe, who had two points.
Since their early-season stretch of three winless games, the Kings are 5-2-0 and have yet to drop consecutive decisions.
“I wish there didn’t have to be a response game, but I will give our players credit, we’ve been pretty good at bouncing back from a game that we just really didn’t think we played well,” Kings coach Jim Hiller told reporters.
Since Hiller took the helm in February, the Kings flipped from road warriors to connoisseurs of home cooking. Their victory versus Vegas brought them to 3-0-0 at home this year. Their 14-3-1 home record last season under Hiller signified a 17-3-1 cumulative mark at Crypto.com Arena, where they’ll be Saturday, during his tenure.
Winger Kevin Fiala had 23 points in those 21 games, including a pair Wednesday. He missed the previous game and a half after being benched in a home win over Utah and then banished to the pressbox for missing a team meeting ahead of the San Jose game.
Hiller called Fiala “a team guy” and said there was “nothing malicious” in his actions. Fiala’s explanation for missing the meeting – which many speculated may have been connected to the benching – was hardly a ringing endorsement for Apple products.
“My alarm didn’t went off,” Fiala explained to reporters. “I had only my iPad, my iPhone was broken, and I never had iPad, um, yeah, doing the alarm for me, and will never do again, but, um, yeah, it didn’t went off, honestly, that’s the truth, but I take full responsibility.”
Fiala clarified that he felt he let his teammates down and that he was very happy in the Kings organization, summarizing the sequence of events by saying “sometimes it happens, you get a kick in the butt and off you go.”
Fiala and Kempe’s multipoint efforts were overshadowed somewat by Anže Kopitar and Brandt Clarke’s three-point showings. Kopitar became the 35th player in NHL history to reach 800 assists, and all 35 skaters are either in the Hockey Hall of Fame or comfortably on their way, including the other three active players to have crossed the threshold. Meanwhile, Clarke’s three assists moved him within a point of second place for scoring among defensemen this season.
Hiller was asked about Clarke but opted to focus more on the risk in Clarke’s game and a broad analysis of how some players can earn assists without having “much of an effect on the play.” Six of Clarke’s 10 helpers have been primary assists and he has a plus-two rating, including positive ratings in four straight. That was despite the fact that nearly half his scoring has come on the power play, meaning those five points had no impact on his rating.
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Clarke’s 11 total points are even more prolific than the nine points of Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, last year’s No. 1 overall pick and Chicago’s team scoring leader. Big-ticket rearguard Seth Jones leads the ‘Hawks in defensive scoring with seven points.
San Jose’s win over the Kings was just their second of the season but now they find themselves riding a three-game win streak that has stuffed Chicago into last place with its meager .318 points percentage.
Chicago at Kings
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV: FanDuel Sports Network West